Friday, May 24, 2013

Sunsshine, fair winds - NOT

Overcast, high winds, rain, just a wonderful day... Atlantic City is empty. We rode the jitney
to the boardwalk and when two jitneys stopped at a stop light side by side, one
on they right commented, "Where are all the people??" It's the Friday
before the Memorial Day weekend and the place is empty. Of course the weather
might have something to do with that. The low for tonight is predicted to be 46
and the high tomorrow not much above 60! That's along with gale force winds (to
keep the boaters away) of up to 35 kts and 5 to 7 ft waves.

Caesars - on the way in

So we decided to explore the boardwalk and have lunch at the
enclosed pier. The third floor has the Piazza Di Giorgio Cafe with great sandwiches and side dishes for under $10! A great place for lunch! You can take your meal to the window area and look out over the Atlantic with your feet in the sand under the chairs for just such an event. After lunch you can enjoy the water light show with dancing waters every hour on top of the hour. We used the time the enjoy our meal and watch the huge waves coming into shore from the recent high winds. The pier is fully enclosed so you can just look out the windows (spotless) at the view. On good days they open the outdoor viewing area. You can get to the pier by leaving the jitney at Ceasar's and walking the skyway to the pier.

Be sure to see the water display at the Pier

The wind started to really pipe up and so we headed back to the boat. We use the jitney service which covers all of Atlantic City. It cost $2.25 per ride per person unless you buy the senior citizen tickets in advance at 75 cents each, which, of course, I had done earlier. Getting the senior citizen tickets is not easy, you have to appear in a less than desirable part of town that has a bullet proof window and locked entry door that can only be opened from inside remotely by an attendant, says something about the area I guess. I braved all that and have the discount tickets.

Observe the view of the ocean in full comfort!

Once back on the boat we heard this very, very loud sound, a helicopter making a landing on top of the casino! Now this was with 20 to 30 kts of gusting wind, who would want to do that! We later saw the helicopter on the back of the casino owner's boat, Boardwalk! It was evidently the casino owner coming to pay a visit.

You even have Atlantic City sand under your feet!

We're saddened that we can't make the PYC Anchors Aweigh Ball on Saturday night. As compensation, we're going to the Charthouse for dinner and perhaps we'll have company from Cape May in the form of John Kwak and his crew if they can make it up here in their rented car in time. It would be fun to trade sailing stories, they had an exciting time coming down Delaware Bay in high winds on Thursday and ducking under the Cape May Canal bridges, barely, in a rising tide!

We're under gale warnings here at Atlantic City but Monday still looks good for heading north again so that's our plan. If the weather holds, that would put us at PYC on Wednesday but nothing is certain.